Trujillo and Huanchaco: An Interlude

After an awful bus journey, which dragged on for three hours longer than expected and didn´t offer the promised air conditioning, the Bradfordian, the Aussie and myself arrived in Trujillo. After a poor first impression, later compounded by a poor second impression, we jumped into the first taxi to the nearby coastal town of Huanchaco.

The whole point of this stop off was simply to break up a mission of a journey from Mancora to Huaraz, and as a brief diversion Huanchaco served its purpose, simply for the entertanment. The weather was good, but because our time was short and our surfing abilities poor we chose not to brave the waves that seem to be the reason for its entire existence but instead attempted to find somewhere to watch that afternoon´s Real Madrid v Barcelona match.

Here we ran into issues. For every bar whose staff claimed that El Clasico would soon be gracing their television screens, we were greeted not by Messi, Ronaldo, Villa et al but by a local Peruvian match of very questionable quality. Turned out that week´s big game in Peru is also, handily, nicknamed El Clasico, though by no means deserving of the moniker. After one final hopeful stroll up the beachfront we settled on a handy happy hour (five hours long, my favourite) to drown our sorrows with cheap cocktails before retiring to our cheap and cheerful family-run guesthouse.

Rising the next day it was straight to the bus station to arrange an overnight bus from Trujillo, inland to mountainous Huaraz. The day was spent killing time in this typically non-descript Peruvian town, as with so many containing a central Plaza de Armas and not much else. It was a relief to all three when we borded our bus and were back on the road once more.

I understand the “town” you are talking about is Perú’s 3rd city in importance, with almost 1 million people living there and more than 500 years of republican history.
I believe you were not hooked up by the right people when you got there and were misinformed of the historical references of this popular beach town in the northern cost of Peru.